Frances Fisher

The sympathetic, red-haired, porcelain-skinned Fisher has portrayed strong women on film and TV since the early 1980s. Born in England and raised there as well as in Italy, Turkey and Texas, she got h...
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Boyhood, The Theory Of Everything and The Grand Budapest Hotel were among the big winners at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards on Sunday (08Feb15). Boyhood scored the coveted Best Film prize, while filmmaker Richard Linklater claimed Best Director and Patricia Arquette was named Best Supporting Actress.
Hawke accepted the director award on Linklater's behalf, as the filmmaker had opted to attend the Directors Guild Awards in Los Angeles the previous night (07Feb15) instead. Hawke says, "He was hijacked at the DGAs and sat there losing and is going to be really, frankly, p**sed off, that he’s not here tonight."
Linklater lost the top directing prize at the DGA ceremony to Birdman's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
The Theory of Everything was another triple winner, scoring Outstanding British Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Leading Actor for Eddie Redmayne's portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking.
In his acceptance speech, the star paid tribute to Hawking and his wife Jane, who were in the audience at London's Royal Opera House, saying, "I would like to thank them for their trust in us, their generosity and their kindness and for reminding me of the great strength that comes from having the will to live a full and passionate life."
The Grand Budapest Hotel landed the most prizes of the night with five, but its biggest win was in the Best Original Screenplay category for writer/director Wes Anderson, with the remaining accolades coming in the technical categories, including Costume Design, Production Design and Original Music.
Julianne Moore continued her awards season streak with the Leading Actress honour for Still Alice, while J.K. Simmons won Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash and Unbroken's Jack O'Connell was named the EE Rising Star.
Other winners included Citizenfour for Best Documentary and The Lego Movie, which picked up the Best Animated Film prize, despite being snubbed in the Oscar nominations.
During the ceremony, British royal The Duke of Cambridge and Robert Downey, Jr. paid special tribute to late actor/director Lord Richard Attenborough via video message. Attenborough, who directed Downey, Jr. in 1992 biopic Chaplin and served as BAFTA Chairman for eight years, died in August (14). The Iron Man star said, "I'm sad. I miss you Dicky," before reciting the opening lyrics to Smile by Charlie Chaplin.
The main In Memoriam tribute section honoured a number of late stars including Robin Williams, Lauren Bacall, Harold Ramis and Mickey Rooney.
The full winners list is as follows:
Best Film: Boyhood
Outstanding British Film: The Theory of Everything
Best Director: Richard Linklater - Boyhood
Best Leading Actor: Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything
Best Leading Actress: Julianne Moore - Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons - Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
Best Original Screenplay: Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Adapted Screenplay: Anthony McCarten - The Theory of Everything
Best Original Music: Alexandre Desplat - The Grand Budapest Hotel
EE Rising Star Award: Jack O'Connell
Best Animated Film: The Lego Movie
Best Documentary: Citizenfour
Best Film Not in the English Language: Ida
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer: Stephen Beresford, David Livingstone - Pride
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki - Birdman
Best Special Visual Effects: Paul Franklin, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter - Interstellar
Best Production Design: Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Costume Design: Milena Canonero - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Makeup and Hair: Frances Hannon, Mark Coulier - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Sound: Thomas Curley, Ben Wilkins, Craig Mann - Whiplash
Best Editing: Tom Cross - Whiplash
Best Short Film: Boogaloo And Graham
Best Short Animation: The Bigger Picture
BAFTA Fellowship: Mike Leigh
Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema: BBC Films.

Birdman, Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore and Orange Is The New Black were the toast of the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night (25Jan15). Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and the cast of Birdman were given their biggest boost yet ahead of the Academy Awards after landing the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture title, while the lead acting accolades were awarded to newlywed Redmayne, who was recognised by his peers for his portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, and Moore, who was feted for her role as a mother battling early onset Alzheimer's disease in Still Alice.
Whiplash's J.K. Simmons and Boyhood's Patricia Arquette also continued their awards season winning streak by taking home the top supporting acting film honours.
All four actors are Oscar nominated and are favourites for the biggest night in Hollywood next month (Feb15).
Meanwhile, House of Cards' Kevin Spacey repeated his Golden Globes success by claiming the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Viola Davis picked up the female equivalent for her new crime drama How to Get Away with Murder.
Hit series Orange Is the New Black was a double winner, while the cast of popular British period drama Downton Abbey earned the accolade for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.
Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher also made an appearance at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium ceremony to salute her mother, acting veteran Debbie Reynolds, with the coveted Life Achievement Award.
The full list of winners is:
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role - Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role - Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role - Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture - Birdman
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie - Mark Ruffalo, The Normal Heart
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie - Frances McDormand, Olive Kitteridge
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series - Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series - Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series - Downton Abbey
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series - William H. Macy, Shameless
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series - Uzo Aduba, Orange Is the New Black
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series - Orange Is the New Black
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture - Unbroken
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series - Game of Thrones
Life Achievement Award - Debbie Reynolds.

Actress Frances Fisher has been hit with a breach of oral contract lawsuit from her former managers. Bosses at Sanders Armstrong Caserta Management claim the Titanic star owes them a "minimum" payment of $60,840 (GBP38,025) for her work on TV series Resurrection, according to Deadline.com.
They are also looking for "general damages in an amount to be proven at trial" and "a judicial declaration that SAC Management is entitled to a 10 per cent commission" on all of Fisher's earnings in the future "pursuant to the Resurrection Agreement".
Executives at the company allege Fisher did not fully compensate them for their services after ending her three-year relationship with them.
The lawsuit reads, "Immediately after SAC Management received the Fisher Parties' written notice of termination of the Management Agreement, (Fisher's former manager Tammy) Rosen sent an email message to Fisher and a separate email message to Michael Greene (Fisher's talent agent) and Jeff Bernstein (Fisher's attorney), each of which confirmed that SAC Management would be entitled to commissions on the Fisher Parties' income from Resurrection.
"After further discussion, Fisher expressly confirmed that she agreed to pay such commissions. As a result, on June 5, 2013, Nancy Sanders and Mark Armstrong of SAC Management wrote a confirming letter to Fisher, Bernstein and Greene, which states: Thank you for getting back to us yesterday regarding commissions. As agreed upon, 10% will (be) paid on the original series contract for Resurrection on a per episode basis. We've all been doing this a long time and we appreciate that this was dealt with respectfully and in acknowledgement of Tammy's hard work. Frances, best of luck on the series. We hope it's a great experience for you."

Courtney Love ensured her daughter Frances Bean Cobain partied like a rock star the first time she got drunk, by spending $14,000 (£8,750) on fine wines at a luxury hotel. The Hole frontwoman treated her daughter by Nirvana legend Kurt Cobain to a New Year's Eve trip to Paris, France with actress Carrie Fisher and veteran singer Marianne Faithfull in December (13), and she even agreed to pick up the tab.
Love was shocked when she was presented with a bill from bosses of the luxury Hotel Ritz for $14,000, but she was secretly proud her 21-year-old daughter already knows how to party in style.
She tells rock magazine Q, "At New Year's I sent her to Paris with my neighbour Carrie Fisher and her great friend Marianne Faithfull - and you don't really think about childcare when you think about those two... and then I got a bill from the Ritz in Paris for $14,000. I'm like, 'What the f**k costs that much on New Year's Eve?' Two bottles of (wine) Petrus. Yeah - that Marianne ordered. So... it's fine, and if you're gonna get drunk for the first time, do it on Petrus at the Ritz in Paris with Marianne Faithfull."

Clint Eastwood's model daughter Francesca has secretly wed Jonah Hill's brother in a low-key ceremony in Las Vegas, according to multiple reports. The 20-year-old blonde obtained a marriage licence from officials in Clark County, Nevada on 17 November (13) and exchanged vows with Jordan Feldstein, who serves as Maroon 5's music manager, on Sunday (17Nov13).
The happy news will come as a surprise to many - the bride, whose mother is actress Frances Fisher, had been dating celebrity photographer Tyler Shields for some time and even documented their relationship on reality show Mrs. Eastwood & Company, in which both appeared with Francesca's stepmother, Dina Eastwood.
The new bride did not wear a wedding ring or make any mention of the nuptials when she attended the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's awards season kick-off party in Los Angeles on Thursday night (21Nov13), when she introduced Kevin Bacon's daughter, Sosie, as 2014's Miss Golden Globe. Eastwood served as the celebrated usher at last year's (13) prizegiving.
The newlyweds posted their marriage certificate in Clark County on Tuesday (19Nov13), according to TMZ.com.

The daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick has been named Miss Golden Globe 2014 ahead of the upcoming Hollywood prizegiving. Sosie Bacon, who has followed her famous parents into acting, will assist presenters and help hand out trophies at the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony on 12 January (14).
During the announcement on Wednesday (20Nov13), the 21 year old said, "I am so grateful to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for naming me this year's Miss Golden Globe. As a young actress who is just beginning my career, it is truly an honor to be a part of such a special night in film and television."
The honour is bestowed by members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organisation behind the Golden Globes, and the role is traditionally handed to the child of a celebrity.
Previous Miss Golden Globes include Bruce Willis' daughter Rumer, Kevin Costner's daughter Lily, and Francesca Eastwood, the daughter of Clint Eastwood and actress Frances Fisher.

On the surface, Stephenie Meyer’s The Host (directed by Andrew Niccol) and Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho’s The Host having nothing in common. But that’s just because you didn’t look deep enough!
Sure, Meyer’s film is a YA extravaganza featuring a love square among a girl whose body has been possessed by an alien soul, the girl herself who still exists inside the darkest recesses of her own brain via incredibly annoying voiceover, and the two perfectly coifed, absolutely indistinguishable CW-ready hunks both girls have fallen in love with. Bong Joon-ho’s The Host is a blistering environmentalist parable working within classic monster movie conventions: a schoolgirl is abducted by a freaky river monster that was only created because of toxic waste dumping. As a Korean film, it faced the usual stateside hurdle of snagging a large audience when you have subtitles. Meyer’s film, however, was expected to be a decently-performing blockbuster with franchise potential. And yet her Host bombed with an $11 million opening weekend bow, far below expectations, while Bong’s film, though making far less with only $2.2 million for its lifetime gross, exceeded expectations for a foreign-made monster movie. It also walked away with a much higher per-theater average than Meyer’s film, due to how it only ever played on 116 screens to the Meyer film’s 3,200.
‘The Host’: Let’s Talk About That Ending--SPOILERS
Then there’s the whole matter of critical reception: The new Host received laughably bad reviews (12% on Rotten Tomatoes), while its Korean predecessor is pretty much the definition of an arthouse smash (93% on Rotten Tomatoes). And yet, even after all these signs telling me otherwise, I maintain that these two films have more in common than you’d expect. Here are six points of similarity between them.
1. They’re Both About a Girl Who May Still Be Alive Against All Odds The Korean film presents an updated version of the Fay Wray-King Kong scenario: a beast has abducted a girl (Go Ah-sung) and taken her to his lair to await possible devouring. Meyer’s film, on the surface anyway, appears a bit more audacious, with alien soul Wanderer having taken over the body of the human resistance fighter Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan).
‘The Host’ Movie Review: A Great Idea Snatched by a Sub-‘Twilight’ Parasite
In both cases the survivors doubt that the girl is alive and give in to intense despair. Meyer’s film devotes most of its runtime to the human refugees slowly discovering that Melanie is still alive and aware inside her body, despite the alien Soul that does most of her walking and talking. When the resistance fighters first discover her, though, they treat her like a zombie, a member of the walking dead that needs to be put down. Her aunt slugs her. So does her old boyfriend. And one member of the party offers to behead her with a machete. Of course, she’s quickly spared, and that level of brutality never surfaces again in the rest of the film. Bong’s The Host uses the disappearance of young Hyun-seo as the impetus for a hilarious critique of overblown public displays of grief. Hyun-seo’s family gets drunk, scream before a shrine of the girl, and end up rolling on the floor wailing. However, a timely cell phone call from Hyun-seo, deep in the bowels of the creature’s sewer cave make her family realize she’s still alive.
2. Both Movies Are Also About a Failure to Communicate. Melanie can’t get through to the people she cares about. Hyun-seo’s family can’t convince the authorities that she’s still alive. The funniest scene in Bong’s film is when Hyun-seo’s father tries to tell the authorities that his daughter may not have been eaten by the monster, as they seemed to witness, but may have been gently picked up inside the monster’s mouth and carried like a doll to somewhere else. Dad gently picks up a cell phone with his mouth, then deposits it like a bone in a bucket to convey the idea. He’s exactly right that that’s what happened, but because he did such a poor job of conveying the idea, everybody thinks he’s totally crazy.
‘The Host’ Bombs at the Box Office
3. They’re Both About How Family Sticks Together Though it takes awhile, Melanie’s boyfriend (Max Irons), uncle (William Hurt), and aunt (Frances Fisher, denied more than a line in the film) come to believe she’s still alive. They’re willing to take up arms and defend her from the white pant-suited Souls who want to abduct her…and the skeptical humans in their midst who still want to kill her. Hyun-seo’s father, Gang-du (Song Kang-ho), a feckless twit who’s never aspired to more than the family’s fried-squid stand, has to man up and search for his daughter. He follows a traditional horror-movie arc of a character who starts out listless and lost, like the pot-smoking parents in Poltergeist, and becomes empowered and competent in order to save the day. Gang-du, his father, his white-collar brother, and his champion archer sister—yep, I’d be willing to say our current fascination with archery really stems back to The Host—pool their skills like an awesomely schlubby posse to defeat the beast and rescue Hyun-seo. They’re certainly not going to get any help from the authorities.
4. Both Are Critical of Big Government Meyer’s film is the ideal red state sci-fi epic: you find renewal and rejuvenation in rural America and escape from the dead-eyed alien hordes that quickly assumed the apparatus of the federal government and are using its resources to track down anyone who opposes them. The survivors’ only defense comes in the form of the firearms they carry at all times. They had them before the invasion to protect themselves from tyranny, and now the worst case scenario they feared (or maybe longed for) has arrived and all that can protect them from city-dwellers-turned-alien-invaders is their .38-caliber fury.
In Bong’s The Host, the South Korean government is shown to be clogged with bureaucracy and ineptitude: one disaster-relief official refuses to tell the survivors anything that happened about the monster attack and has them listen to the news on TV instead. The government is shown to be overly deferential to the U.S. military, which has bases in South Korea, and believes the U.S. officials’ claims that the monster is a host for a deadly virus, even though there’s no evidence to suggest that is the case. Bong’s film can also be read as a critique of American neo-imperialism, that the U.S.’s projection of power throughout the world can have unintended consequences. The inciting event that creates the monster, a Korean lab tech being forced to pour gallons of formaldehyde in the Han River, is based on a real-life toxic waste-dumping situation from 2000 involving the U.S. authorities. So both films are critical of American governmental power, even if Bong’s film is approaching that critique from the left and Meyer’s film from the right.
5. Both Feature Invasive Medical Procedures The moment that’s supposed to be all shocking in Meyer’s film, but really isn’t, is when we see that the human resistance have been experimenting on the bodies of humans possessed by Souls. They’ve been trying to find a way to surgically remove the Souls from their hosts. Wanderer, now named Wanda, is appalled, because it kills both the human and the Soul. She begins to doubt her place within the group.
Hyun-seo’s father, Gang-du, is captured by the South Korean government and their U.S. allies, who’ve manufactured the idea that he’s carrying a deadly virus to keep him away from the monster that’s taken his daughter. Of course, there is no threat, and when Gang-du, after being subjected to cranial drilling, finally escapes, he discovers the U.S. forces barbecuing outside, totally unconcerned about the virus…because there is none.
6. Both Involve Stealing Wanda/Melanie go to a Soul supermarket, take their supplies, and walk right out without paying. Apparently, that’s the norm. There is no exchange of money in the Soul economy, which has to be some kind of critique of socialism. Melanie reveals her own history of shoplifting, however, when she says, “I’ve walked out of a store without paying plenty of times! No one was ever happy about it before, though.” Since Melanie grew up as a poor rural kid, the implication is that we’re supposed to forgive her her illegal method for providing for herself and admire her pluck for doing so. That’s similar to the concept of seo-ri in the Korean Host, which is that people in need can feel morally secure in taking from others without their permission if they are in dire straights and intend to replace what they stole at a later time.
7. Both Display a Remarkable Affinity for Hair Product The distinguishing feature of both Jared and Ian, Melanie and Wanda’s paramours, is that they have perfectly styled locks as the result of the strategic application of gel. Bong’s film also emphasizes hair: Hyun-seo’s father Gang-du has bleached his hair blonde. But that bleaching is emblematic of his fecklessness and irresponsibility, two qualities he sheds because of his efforts to rescue his daughter. By the film’s end—after a few months have passed, just like in Meyer’s film—we see he no longer goes in for the highlighting. Jared and Ian in Meyer’s film will never abandon their use of styling product, however.
So how can two movies with quite a bit in common be so radically different? Because it’s all in the execution.
Follow Christian Blauvelt on Twitter @Ctblauvelt
[Photo Credit: Open Roads Films; Magnolia Pictures]
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The Host, Stephenie Meyer’s latest attempt at harnessing the budding hormones of teen moviegoers, is upon us. You could predict much about the film: legions of swoony fangirls rallying behind the respective banners of Team Jared (Max Irons, son of Jeremy) and Team Ian (Jake Abel); lots of arid, deep-focus shots courtesy of antiseptic futurist director Andrew Niccol; Diane Kruger looking hot in a white pantsuit; William Hurt looking old; a sexy rain scene; puzzlement over the idea that anyone born after 1964 could be named Wanda; the talented Saoirse Ronan being far over-qualified for this tepid, listless young adult material.
What people who haven’t read Meyer's book might not have expected is how the movie ends with such craven set-up for a sequel. It’s a bit odd, because the 2008 novel doesn’t yet have a sequel itself. Not to mention that Meyer has been rather vague about whether she even is planning on producing a follow-up. So are her fans going to experience right now what fans of HBO’s Game of Thrones have long feared: that they may have to wait for a movie sequel until the author of its source material actually decides to put pen to page? Possibly.
RELATED: ‘The Host’ Is a Great Idea Body Snatched by a Sub-‘Twilight’ Parasite
Here’s what happens. Aliens named Souls travel across the galaxy, inhabiting the bodies of other species they encounter. They view their possession of host bodies as a kind of synthesis, a harmonious joining—while the races they’ve inhabited probably view it as a brutal conquest. Now they’ve targeted Earth…and have taken over pretty quickly, with only a modest human resistance left to oppose them. So, yeah, this is basically just Invasion of the Body Snatchers for the CW set.
MAJOR SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT
All the Souls give their human host bodies new periwinkle-blue eyes, for extra creepy effect. Most of the movie concerns the Soul named Wanderer and her acclimation to the new host body she’s taken. The personality of her host body, a girl from the resistance named Melanie Stryder, won’t be repressed. So Wanderer and Melanie end up sharing one body. Also, there’s no plumbing where they end up, so call it “Two Girls, One Body, No Cup.”
They make it to Melanie’s ramshackle family of resistance fighters out in what appears to be John Ford’s Monument Valley. And the next hour and a half becomes an inquiry into Melanie’s ontological status: Is she still in that body? We already know the answer is yes because we’ve had to endure her inane voiceover. The resistance fighters come to accept that Melanie is alive…but they also accept the individuality of Wanderer, who they’ve renamed Wanda. The Soul eventually decides she must give Melanie back her body, and to do that she must die.
RELATED: ‘The Host’ Star Saoirse Ronan Talks About Alien Kissing
OK, not really, because without her consent the resistance fighters just end up putting Wanda inside another human body that was going to die anyway. Wanda wakes up…and now she’s played by Emily Browning! This is with 10 minutes left in the movie. You don’t just put Emily Browning, a budding starlet in her own right, in your movie for the last 10 minutes and hope to leave it at that. They’ve gotta be planning on using her for a sequel, right? And then there’s the film’s official epilogue, set “A Few Months Later.” Wanda and Melanie are driving along with their indistinguishable hunks when they’re stopped by what we think is an alien patrol. But actually it’s a group of humans with one Soul among them…just like Wanda and Melanie’s group! Proving that there are others out there who believe Souls and humans can live in harmony, yet oppose the Soul invasion agenda. If they band together, they’ll be unstoppable. Stay tuned for the sequel, The Host Part 2: Penumbra (if it follows the Twilight saga’s fixation on using astronomical phenomena in its naming convention).
Except that there’s no sequel in the works as of right now at all! So what to make of this ending? We can’t call it a cliffhanger, because there is no suspense in Stephenie Meyer’s world. But it does seem like set-up. Here are some other burning questions we have too:
1. Does the fact that Souls only want to wear white suits explain why they never appear to possess the bodies of plus-size humans? 2. Do the Souls refuse to drive any car valued at less than $200,000? 3. Does voiceover work effectively in anything but a Terrence Malick movie these days? 4. Where did Jared and Ian obtain their seemingly endless supply of styling product? Are they raiding abandoned salons in their down time to stock up on all the hair gel they can get? 5. Is there no film that William Hurt and Frances Fisher can’t elevate?6. Does the presence of periwinkle eyes indicate that a Soul took over the body of Geordi LaForge?
We'll answer Question #5: When that film is The Host.
Follow Christian Blauvelt on Twitter @Ctblauvelt
[Photo Credit: Open Roads Films]
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Not all Young Adult Fiction adaptations are created equal.
Riding the Twilight wave has its advantages and disadvantages, the keystone of the Young Adult fiction genre working as a hook for enthusiastic readers, and a warning sign for those who caught the early exploits of Bella and Edward. Beautiful Creatures owes its cinematic existence to the uber-successful series, but the connective tissue ends there. Based on the novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the movie is ripe with energy, drawing from its preserved, Southern gothic setting of South Carolina, two vivacious young romantics, and an ensemble of seasoned vets who chew up their scenes with twang. Beautiful Creatures doesn't wallow in relationships, it sparks them with frank sexuality and a dash of biting commentary. So long, Twilight.
RELATED: 'Beautiful Creatures,' The Mortal Instruments' and More YA Books You Should Know
Alden Ehrenreich (Tetro) stars as Ethan, an ambitious resident of Gatlin, SC who dreams big and has a particular penchant for plowing through the town's banned book list (yes, even in modern times, there are people who don't see To Kill a Mockingbird as reading fit for teenagers). Waking him up from the doldrums of suburban life is new student Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert of Ginger &amp; Rosa), niece of the towns' notorious Ravenwood family, who becomes the target of public shaming. Beautiful Creatures does not skirt around the strong Christian influence of Southern culture and, as someone the kids believe is a Devil worshipper, Lena is an instant outcast under violent, verbal attack. Quite literally, kids pray in the class room to protect themselves from Lena's bad vibes. If Ethan didn't find the girl attractive in her own right, her position at the bottom of the social ladder fuels his infatuation.
Because today's young romances demand a supernatural element, Lena eventually reveals to her courter that she's a "caster," the nice word for witch in the world of Beautiful Creatures. When Lena turns 16, she'll be subject to "The Claiming," a decision (made by the moon?) that will force her to either the light, nice and peachy side, or the dark, wicked and bloodthirsty side of casting. It's a countdown for Ethan, who realizes he has little time to connect with and possibly save his newfound love. Believing she has the ability to choose her fate, patriarch Macon Ravenwood guides Lena in the ways of the light — while disapproving of her relationship with Ethan.
RELATED: 'Beautiful Creatures' Director 'Not Annoyed' By 'Twilight' Comparisons
The magic logic is as ridiculous and overly complex as it sounds, but Beautiful Creatures writer/director Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King, P.S I Love You) never loses track of his characters and their interesting quirks. Jeremy Irons is a master spinster of exposition — if his Macon is laying down a mythology-building speech or rattling off the "rules of the Ravenwood family curse," it all sounds like Shakespeare. Emma Thompson does double duty in this department, playing the disturbingly conservative Mrs. Lincoln with recognizable, motherly terror, and her alter ego, a version of Lincoln possessed by a banished witch looking for revenge on Lena. Thompson spars with Macon and cackles in all her thick Southern accent glory, jumping between personas without a misstep. It's glorious.
LaGravenese makes two inspired discoveries with Ehrenreich and Englert, who set the bar for performances in the genre. Ehrenreich is charming and warm, acting like an actual human being in the midst of a fantasy. He makes adorably awful small talk to woo Lena, he worries about her when she destroys the windows of a classroom with her mind, he becomes vicious when the Ravenwoods attempts to interfere with their relationship — all natural. Englert is like a young Kathleen Turner, her husky voice and sharp wit turning Alice into an unusually strong female lead. The young caster is vulnerable as her relationship blossoms, but fully capable of turning a family dinner into a merry-go-round from hell. The two are electric on screen, even at their campiest moments. Yes, they're destined lovers, descendants of a couple murdered during the Civil War, but even without the back story, Alice and Alden have a sweet, scary, and fiery romance.
At nearly two hours, Beautiful Creatures could stand to lose a few plot threads — Emmy Rossum arrives halfway through as Lena's Siren cousin, a painful attempt by the actress to steal the spotlight with exaggeration — but stands as proof that tween source material can be done right. As it does with the cast, the film is enhanced by its moody visuals and engaging soundtrack by alternative rock band Thenewno2, all setting the tone for Alden and Alice's fateful entanglement. The movie shows no fear depicting teens in love or the ramifications of America's belief system — touchy subjects that feel daring in a Hollywood production. That's the movie's real magic.
Review: 3.5/5
[Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures]
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With the Twilight franchise behind us, fans of Stephenie Meyer's unique blend of genre tropes and romance stories are waiting patiently for their hunger to be fed by the author's next big adaptation: The Host. From director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, In Time), the sci-fi tale takes place in a world invaded by a parasitic alien race known as "Souls." One teenage girl, Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan), doesn't take the mental overtaking lightly. Instead of succumbing to her extraterrestrial visitor (a Soul named "Wanderer"), she fights back mentally, flooding their shared consciousness with her memories and creating a bond between the two. Together, they set off on a mission to track down Melanie's missing family (while outrunning more nefarious Souls aka The Seekers).
We got our first taste of The Host at Comic-Con and in the first trailer for the film. Now, we have an even broader look at the action in store when the movie eventually hits theaters in March. Courtesy of Little, Brown's The Host: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion, Hollywood.com is exclusively premiering 10 new images including new looks at Ronan as Melanie/Wanderer, Ian (Jake Abel), Kyle (Boyd Holbrook), Jared (Max Irons), brother/sister pair Jeb (William Hurt) and Maggie (Frances Fisher), and some nasty looking Seekers.
The footage from Comic-Con offered bigger scale action than anything served up in Twilight and our handful of new images make good on the promise with glimpses at fight scenes and major stunts. Don't worry: there's plenty of romance too. Check out the images from the Illustrated Movie Companion (available now and stuffed with even more pics) and watch for The Host when it arrives on March 29, 2013.

Appeared in the play "The Cherry Orchard" at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum

Played the narrator and suffragist in "A Single Woman"

Cast as the lead character's mother on midseason replacement series "Glory Days" (The WB)

Summary

The sympathetic, red-haired, porcelain-skinned Fisher has portrayed strong women on film and TV since the early 1980s. Born in England and raised there as well as in Italy, Turkey and Texas, she got her start on the ABC soap opera "The Edge of Night", appearing as the wealthy Deborah Saxon from 1976 to 1981. Fisher followed with a brief turn playing a record executive on "The Guiding Light" (CBS, 1985). During that time, she was studying at the Actors Studio and appeared in several theatrical productions, most notably Sam Shepard's Off-Broadway success "Fool for Love" (1984).

Raised by Fisher after their mother died; Spokesperson for the Internet movement "Censure Bill [Clinton] and Move On"

Billy Hamilton

Husband

High school sweetheart; Married in 1970; Divorced in 1972

Education

Name

Actors Studio

Lutcherstark High School

Notes

Fisher and her daughter were briefly trapped by fire in the second story of their Vancouver, British Columbia home on Christmas Day 2001. The pair managed to climb out of a window onto the roof of an adjacent home from which they jumped to safety. Fisher suffered burns to her hands while her daughter underwent treatment for smoke inhalation.